Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain

Julius Caesar's invasions of Britain occurred in 55 and 54 BC when the Roman general Julius Caesar mounted two expeditions against Britain. Although he met with only limited success and did not establish a permanent Roman presence on the British Isles, he did establish treaty relations with many British tribes and drew Britain into the orbit of Roman political ambitions.

Background
The inhabitants of southern Britain had long-standing relations with the tribes across the English Channel. Through them, they would have heard of the northwards progress of the Roman Army.

The landscape of Iron and Bronze Age Britain was littered with sites of ritual importance, which the Romans would encounter after their invasion. The White House at Uffington, in Oxfordshire, is one such site. It may be 3,000 years old and have been part of a ceremonial complex.

Julius Caesar conquered much of Gaul (modern France) between 58 and 52 BC. He was able to derive political advantage from British exiles who sought his protection, such as Mandubracius, of the Trinovantes tribe, who was sent to him on his second invasion of Britain.

History
An anti-Roman revolt by the Veneti of Armorica (in modern Brittany) in 56 BC, which possibly received some support from Britain, led Julius Caesar to turn his attention northwards. To enter Britain, an island that lay impossibly far off, beyond "the bounds of ocean", would have brought him immense prestige. However, political difficulties delayed his invasion plans for a year. Finally, in 55 BC, Caesar prepared to cross the Channel with a small expeditionary force. His principal opponent was to be Cassivellaunus, who was King of the Catuvellauni, a tribe that had been expanding from its base at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire to dominate much of southern England.

Preparation
Caesar received envoys from a number of other British tribes who were eager to show their submission and thus avoid having their lands invaded. He also dispatched a small reconnaissance force under the tribune (a senior military officer), Gaius Volusenus, to scout out suitable landing beaches. In addition, he sent out a diplomatic mission under the Gallic chieftain Commius to further rally pro-Roman opinion. Unfortunately, though, both failed - Volusenus was unable to locate a sheltered harbor fot eh Roman fleet and Commius was promptly arrested. On 26 August, Caesar set sail with a force composed of two legions - Legio VII Claudia and Legio X Equestris. The cliffs and beaches around Dover were occupied by British defenders and the Roman ships were forced to run aground somewhere near Deal in Kent. The legionaries had to disembark in relatively deep waters under a constant hail of missiles. Although the legions managed to establish a beachhead, disaster struck four days later when a severe storm scattered the ships that had been bringing more than 500 cavalry as reinforcements, and also badly damaged many of the landing craft. Deprived of cavalry support, Caesar was vulnerable, and after the Legio VII was severely mauled in an ambush, he chose to declare the expedition a success and returned to Gaul accompanied by a number of British hostages.

A new expedition
Preparations were soon underway for a new expedition. Caesar had learnt lessons from the comparative failure of his first incursion into Britain. This time he decided to bring five legions - amounting to more than 30,000 men - and some 2,000 cavalry. The latter were a critical component in countering the battle tactics of the Britons who, unlike their counterparts in mainland Europe, still used chariots in battle to harass infantry units, which lacked mounted support.

On 6 July 54 BC, Caesar set off for Britain once more. His flotilla of 800 ships landed near Deal, this time unopposed, apparently because the Britons were so intimidated by the size of the force that they chose not to resist it. Once more, however, the Roman fleet was battered by a serious storm and the 10 days' delay in building a ramprt extensive enough to allow the remnants of their naval force to be beached, emboldened the Britons. They were then able to offer a more effective defense under the leadership of Cassivellaunus.

The Romans son a series of engagements. They captured a hillfort at Bigbury near Canterbury, overcame an attempt at entrapping a Roman foraging force, and then pushed on towards the Thames. Diplomatic pressure also began to tell now, as Caesar had with him one of Cassivellaunus' arch-enemies, Mandubracius of the Trinovantes. Some British chieftains who were afraid that Cassivellaunus might use success against Caesar to increase his own power also began to waver in their support for the campaign against the Romans. The capture of Cassivellaunus' chief stronghold - probably the oppidum at Wheathampstead - led to a desperate attempt to stir the Kentish tribes into a final uprising against Caesar. It was to no avail and Cassivellaunus sued for peace. Caesar readily accepted, as he had already decided not to overwinter in Britain, fearing that a revolt might break out in Gaul during his absence. He accepted British hostages and fixed a tribute to be paid by Cassivellaunus before returning across the Channel sometime in the middle of September. The Trinovantes became, in effect, a client kingdom of Rome. In addition, Cassivellaunus was forbidden to interfere in their territory. Whatever his intentions regarding a third and more decisive invasion of Britain might have been, Julius Caesar was distracted from taking any action until 51 BC by a major uprising in Gaul and thereafter by his involvement in the Roman civil wars, which led to his appointment as Dictator in Rome in 47 BC.

Attempts by Augustus
Caesar's adoptive son and successor, Augustus, who also became the first Roman Emperor, made plans to invade Britain at least twice, in 34 BC and 26 BC, but suspected revolts elsewhere in the empire caused him to call off the expeditions both times. Instead, the Romans, who in any case regarded the "whole of the island as Roman property" (according to the historian Strabo), supported client kings such as Tincommius and Verica, who ruled over a Belgic kingdom in southern England, against the growing power of the Catuvellauni, who overran the Trinovantian capital of Camulodunum (Colchester) around 9 AD. The Romans maintained their influence in Britain by involving themselves in its politics.

Background
Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC and the conquest of Britain was not an immediate priority for his successor Augustus. It was nearly 100 years after Caesar's first invasion that Britain became a Roman province. There was an abortive expedition in 40 AD under Caligula, but Britain was finally invaded on the orders of the Emperor Claudius in 45 AD. Thereafter, it remained under Roman control for almost four centuries until 410 AD, when the Empire was nearing its final collapse in the west. Hadrian visited Britain in 121 AD and ordered a wall to be built to protect the northern limit of the Empire.